Hmong Voices

About me:

For more information about how you can support or get involved in the Hmong Voices Project, please contact Brandon Wright, Program Director, at:

..Email: hmongvoices@sbcglobal.net..

..Website: www.cmcweb.org..

What is Hmong Voices?

Hmong Voices is an ongoing project of the Center for Multicultural Cooperation (CMC), a Fresno non-profit organization. CMC promotes educational programs for social and civic responsibility, service-learning, media, art, history and multicultural cooperation.

Why was Hmong Voices started?

HMONG VOICES started as a result of a tragic series of Hmong teen suicides in Fresno between 1998 and 2001. When Hmong leaders gathered together to discuss this epidemic, they concluded that Hmong youth were suffering from a dangerous disconnect. They were trapped somewhere between American and Hmong, not able to negotiate an identity, never quite fitting in to either category and struggling for acceptance with both groups. Fresno residents and the Hmong community both needed a more comprehensive understanding of how their two stories were intertwined, and how their history and future is vitally linked together.

In 2004, Fresno Unified School District partnered with the Center for Multicultural Cooperation to implement the award winning digital storytelling methodology of the Digital Clubhouse Network with seven Fresno youth as they produced the first Hmong Voices video series. Fresno youth and Hmong elders volunteered hundreds of hours over the summer to record oral histories and create digital stories documenting the history of the Secret War in Laos, the Thai refugee camps, immigration to the Central Valley, and integration into American life.

What is the goal for the Hmong Voices Project?

The mission of the Hmong Voices Project is to inspire and empower Hmong youth and families in Fresno to use technology to express their history, culture, ideas, perspectives, and insights through the creation of a series of short documentary films. A cornerstone of the project is the production of a rich tapestry of life stories based on the personal experiences of their friends, families and neighbors, which can be shared – in Hmong and English – at local events, in classrooms, and with a global audience over the Internet.

How will the Hmong Voices documentary films be publicized?

These stories will be distributed, on DVD, to Central Valley classrooms and libraries through a partnership with the Fresno Unified School District Title III Office. They will be broadcast via network and cable media channels to a broader Central Valley audience, enabling this community to recognize the unique contribution and cultural assets that Hmong bring to our neighborhoods. Finally, these stories shall be archived at the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University, the Hmong National Archive in St. Paul, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where they will become a permanent part of our national history and heritage.